Appliances used in communication networks (voice networks, data networks, etc.) are provided with communication addresses which are used to use the appliances (communication appliances). Thus, telephones or telephone-like appliances are allocated telephone numbers, computers and computer-like appliances (laptop computers, PDAs, WLAN clients, etc.) use IP addresses (IP=Internet Protocol), computer printers and similar peripherals are likewise addressed using IP addresses or using network names, etc. Either the appliances have already been allocated such addressed by the manufacturer or else they are allocated to the appliances manually, also referred to as administering them. Finally, it is often customary in the case of components (appliances) in computer networks, for example, to assign communication addresses to an appliance automatically, for example using the DHCP method (DHCP=Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).
In the case of yet other appliances, for example in the case of the telephones, it is frequently so that the appliance itself is not allocated a communication address (in this case a telephone number) but rather the physical connection which is used to connect these appliances to a communication system.
It is frequently desirable to assign a quite particular communication address to an appliance from a stock of communication addresses on the basis of location. Thus, in hotel rooms, for example, the communication appliances (telephones) installed in them or the corresponding interfaces of the communication system have telephone numbers used for them which are either identical to the room number or else at least partially comprise portions of the room number. Thus, by way of example, a telephone in room R315 (third floor, room 15) has the internal telephone number 315 or 9315 or the like. Another example of a location-based communication address of this kind is a computer printer (network printer) which is operated in a conference room and can be addressed via a computer network as “Conference Room 1 Printer”. Such “plain text addresses” are usually able to be converted into an IP address or another “technical” communication address within the computer network, for example by what is known as a “DNS server” (DNS=Domain Naming Service).